Tenant's Great-Niece Can't Get Mitchell-Lama Co-op Apartment

An apartment occupant claimed succession rights to a Mitchell-Lama co-op apartment after the shareholder tenants died. Tenant husband died in 1995, and his wife died in 2022. She had been admitted to a nursing home two years earlier, in 2020. The occupant moved to NYC in 2014 to attend graduate school and had lived in the apartment since then. HPD denied the occupant's request, finding that (a) there was no proof of a family relationship between the occupant and tenants, and (b) co-residency with tenant wife during 2021 and 2022 hadn't been established. 

The court ruled against the occupant. It was undisputed that she applied for succession rights in March 2023 and that two separate denial letters weren't sent until September and December 2023. But HPD was required by law to enforce the Mitchell-Lama law and regulations regardless of any actions of apparent acquiescence by landlord. And although landlord didn't properly send letters denying occupant's succession request, she received due process in being allowed to fully submit documentation in support of her claim. In addition, the occupant was tenant's great-niece. This wasn't an enumerate family relationship under Mitchell-Lama regulations. And the occupant didn't submit credible proof that she and tenant shared a financial and emotional commitment and interdependence that would otherwise qualify as a family relationship.

Eron v. Village E. Towers, Inc.: Index No. 157881/2024, 2025 NY Slip Op 30703(U)(Sup. Ct. NY; 3/3/25; Goetz, J)